Four high school students are headed to Latin and South America for service trips this summer, and they're seeking Islanders' help in getting there.

The students — three who attend Vashon High and one a student at The Northwest School — will spend more than a month abroad, in Ecuador, Honduras or the Dominican Republic, teaching environmental health skills or working with children there. The Island teens are taking their trips through the nonprofit service organization Amigos de las Americas.

The four, who will live with host families during their stays abroad, are holding a car wash this weekend and have placed donation cans at various Vashon businesses, hoping to raise money to defray the cost of travel and pay for supplies and materials they'll use once they arrive at their service destination.

"I am very excited for my trip, especially for the opportunities to boost my Spanish toward fluency and to learn (native language) Quechua," said Summer Peet, who will travel to Cotopaxi, Ecuador, this summer to teach residents environmental health skills. "I really want to immerse myself in the culture, more than I ever have on any family trip in the past, and live like the people do for the time that I am there."

Max Westerman will travel to the Dominican Republic, while Brooke Kipling and Zoe Ferguson-Steele will live in different cities in the Honduras, all three working to serve children in their native communities.

The four teens have been engaged in training in preparation for their trips, and they're eager to head out on their formative summerlong adventures.

The students are holding a fundraising car wash in the Vashon Market parking lot on Sunday, April 18.

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